New letter on Haleigh may prove helpful

Deputies in Putnam County focused Friday on a tipster's typed letter and another arrest in the circle of family and friends connected to missing Putnam County girl Haleigh Cummings.

By Lise FisherStaff writer

Deputies in Putnam County focused Friday on a tipster's typed letter and another arrest in the circle of family and friends connected to missing Putnam County girl Haleigh Cummings.The Sheriff's Office has asked for help finding a woman who on Wednesday dropped off a letter at a North Florida newspaper with information about Haleigh.The 6-year-old vanished from her father's home after his then-girlfriend, Misty Croslin Cummings, said she put Haleigh and her younger brother to bed.Meantime, on Thursday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation arrested Lisa Croslin, the mother of Croslin Cummings, said Rick Ryan with the Putnam County Sheriff's Office. A warrant had been issued for her arrest in a forgery and theft case involving a stolen check.Ryan said the case against Lisa Croslin is "unrelated" to Haleigh's disappearance and stems from the same south Putnam County resident who earlier reported Croslin Cummings' brother stole his gun. Hank Thomas Croslin Jr., 23, was jailed earlier this week on a grand theft charge in the case and released Thursday.As for the tipster's letter, officers never revealed its contents but reported it could be "very helpful" in solving Haleigh's disappearance if they could clarify its information with the woman who brought the letter to the St. Augustine Record.Video from the newspaper, released by the Sheriff's Office, showed a woman dropping off the letter. The woman voluntarily came forward Friday afternoon after learning officers wanted to speak with her. According to the Sheriff's Office, she told investigators she was delivering the letter for someone else."Detectives are continuing to follow up, hoping that the clarification will make the tip useful," the agency reported Friday afternoon.In addition to keeping the letter's contents secret, the Sheriff's Office also did not disclose the woman's identity.Associate Editor Richard Prior at the St. Augustine Record, to whom the letter was addressed, said he only missed seeing the woman himself by a few minutes Wednesday. After reading the letter, he got in touch with investigators.

Prior also did not discuss the letter's contents, but said, "There was absolutely no doubt that if it is legitimate that it's pretty volatile stuff. And we also realized that it's not our job to try and determine the legitimacy of the information," he said about contacting authorities."It's very specific about, very specific, some stuff that allegedly happened to Haleigh," said Prior, who had recently done a story about Ronald Cummings, Haleigh's father."This is not something that somebody scribbled to smuggle out of a jail cell," Prior said, referring to a separate letter related to Haleigh allegedly written by a jail inmate that Putnam authorities on Thursday described as a "farce.""And I think that that lends it a little more authenticity," Prior added.In addition to contacting officers, Prior said he also spoke to Ronald Cummings' attorneys about the newest letter.At this point, the newspaper is not publishing the letter. "If they tell us this is authentic, we know what to do and it will be really fast," Prior said.Meanwhile, Lisa Croslin joined a list of people connected to Haleigh and her family who have recently been jailed after she was arrested in Tennessee.A resident alleged to officers that Lisa Croslin cashed a check taken from him. The man, who also reported Hank Croslin Jr. took a gun from his home, said he was missing 10 checks. On Sept. 8, one of the checks made out for $400 was cashed in Lisa Croslin's name at a Palatka bank.Ryan said the matter is not connected to Haleigh's disappearance. "We didn't plan this out," he said.But, he acknowledged, officers will not miss any chance they get to additionally question people with ties to the girl's family. "If a warrant is issued or there's probable cause for an arrest, certainly we're going to seize that opportunity to talk to them about this little girl," he said.

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